The first purchase a pair of wanted thieves made with a stolen credit card was an $1,100, 3-month-old Yorkshire Terrier puppy.
Montgomery County police released video of the pair Friday as they try to identify the man and woman believed to have stolen credit cards from a 60-year-old woman’s car as she attended church services in Bethesda.
After stealing the credit cards, police said the pair manufactured a fake driver’s license using the victim’s name and charged approximately $4,100 — including the puppy — on the cards at area stores.
The theft and credit card fraud occurred within a matter of hours on Aug. 11, prompting concern the pair could be serial thieves.
“We don’t know for sure, but certainly they had the method and means to produce that license and begin using the card within a two-hour time period,” said Cpl. Rebecca Innocenti, spokeswoman for Montgomery County Police Department.
Surveillance video from a Bethesda Nordstrom store, where the man and woman used the stolen credit card to buy about $2,800 in clothing, shows the man carrying the puppy as the pair browsed the department store.
The woman used her fake ID when she purchased the terrier puppy from Just Puppies store at the Twinbrook Shopping Center in Rockville.
Cpl. Innocenti said investigators are hoping someone might recognize the pair or the puppy from the surveillance footage.
The purchases made at the Nordstrom and the pet store were the only charges made to the victim’s credit cards, Cpl. Innocenti said.
